| |
When Audrey and Lola returned home, Lola checked her email to find that she had been called back to Boston by her editor, Colin, to discuss future projects, catch up, and celebrate the success of that Round-the-Island Race article. As Lola read the email, she couldn’t help but think that Audrey could see the future. Colin very clearly wanted to check in for more reasons than business.
Still, Lola always missed Boston. It had been the place she had first made her home after those last strained and strange years with her father on Martha’s Vineyard after her sisters had left her there alone. During those last years, Christine had only called a few times, and Susan had been altogether too busy with her wife and mother duties to bother. Lola didn’t hold it against her any longer. It had been painful for all.
The following morning, Lola said goodbye to everyone, dotting a kiss on her father’s cheek, making sure Audrey ate at least one nutritional thing for breakfast, and stopping by the bistro to grab a croissant from Christine. That busboy, Ronnie, manned the little window out front and grinned broadly at Lola as she approached.
“All of you look so similar,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
“Actually, I’m Christine. We swapped places,” Lola returned.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. What can I get you?”
“Is that Lola?” Christine jumped up toward the window and beamed out. She had that frantic look to her eyes, which she always had when she had woken up before the crack of dawn. “Are you off to Boston?”
“Yep,” Lola said, as Ronnie passed her a croissant in a little brown baggy. “It gets weirder and weirder to leave this place the longer we stay. I guess it kind of rubs off on you that way?”
Christine chuckled. “I don’t even know the next time I’ll have time to get off this rock. Enjoy it for me out there. Get some news from the outside world.”
“Will do.”
Again, Lola was mesmerized at Christine’s chipper nature. Just before Lola turned back to walk toward the ferry, she caught sight of Zach through the window. He had hustled up behind Christine and wrapped her with his arms. She giggled and turned into him. Lola’s heart surged with happiness for her older sister. If she was being honest with herself, she also felt a little hint of jealousy.
Maybe Audrey was right. Maybe she really was ready for some kind of love like that.
Still, she hadn’t heard anything from Tommy Gasbarro. After her history of one night stands, very quick relationships, and brief flirtations, Lola had to guess that this was just another wisp of a fling. It had to be that way, regardless of how much she had thought maybe she had wanted it. Plus, there was the issue of his being Stan Ellis’s ex-stepson.
On the ferry back to the mainland, Lola took notes for her upcoming story about a local artist on Martha’s Vineyard, a woman she had gone to high school with who now commissioned multi-thousand dollar pieces for various celebrities on the island. Colin had been excited about the prospect of it, and she hoped to talk to him about it more when she arrived in Boston. There was nothing she liked more than unraveling a story with an editor, especially Colin since they got along so well.
Several hours later, Lola arrived in Boston via the car she kept in storage in Falmouth. As she entered the city, her heart surged with a mix of excitement and fear. She could still feel that old version of herself, the woman she had been at eighteen—fresh off the island and ready to conquer the world, or at least go after it. Timothy had put a dagger in it all and a baby in her belly, but that hadn’t gotten in her way for good.
Whoever the hell this Max was, he wouldn’t get in Audrey’s way, either.
Lola parked the car outside of the office building, where she had worked for several years as one of the lead editors and journalists. Now, as a freelancer, she had a lot more freedom about what she wrote and definitely didn’t miss the commute every day. As she entered, she thrust her shoulders back and felt her long tresses flow out behind her. She exuded confidence; she could feel it like heat coming off of her.
Colin Rainey stood near the printers on the far end of the main office building, speaking with one of the younger male journalists. When she entered, Colin turned his head quickly and immediately grinned in that mischievous way he always had. He broke off his conversation with the twenty-something immediately and strutted across the office. For a split second, Lola thought that maybe, just maybe, he was attractive. He was forty, with dark blonde hair and thick eyebrows and a perfect jawline. He kept good care of himself. Throughout all the years they had known one another, he’d only had two other girlfriends, besides the time he’d tried it out with Lola, of course.
Lola could feel it in everything he did as they walked toward his office. He loved her.
“Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in,” Colin said.
“Ha. You mean, I’m suntanned, well-fed, and happier than ever?” Lola said, flipping her hair behind her shoulders.
“I guess I’m trying on sarcasm to hide my inner feelings of resentment,” Colin replied, shutting the door closed behind him. “Martha’s Vineyard! You always said you would never go back there.”
Lola chuckled as she sat down. “I guess things change, huh?”
“But you never really explained why,” Colin said. He furrowed his brow as he leaned against the edge of his desk, gazing into her eyes. “You just kind of up and asked to be freelance one day, and then, boom! Out of Boston altogether.”
“I guess it’s kind of difficult to explain,” Lola offered as she sucked in a deep breath.
“Then let’s grab some lunch, and you can tell me a bit more,” Colin said.
Lola glanced at the clock. It was, in fact, just after twelve and she hadn’t seen Colin in a good two months. She guessed she owed it to him to fess up and catch up.
Colin led Lola to their once-usual lunch spot down the street, a Mexican place with killer margaritas called Quando Quando. Normally, they saved the margarita drinking for after work, but Colin insisted they order a round with their lunch.
“Come on! I want to catch up. Really catch up,” he told her.
Okay. Audrey had definitely been right.
“Well, I guess it’s been a whirlwind,” Lola tried. She took a tortilla chip from the pile in front of them and chewed at the edge delicately, feeling put on the spot. “My dad was diagnosed with dementia. My older sister, Susan, called us all back, and then, we learned about the secret of my mother’s death. Apparently, it wasn’t my dad in the boat all along. It was this guy she was having an affair with. A guy who’s still on the island!”
Colin’s eyes bugged out. “Holy crap. You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I’m not. I’m a journalist. I’m sworn to facts,” Lola said.
Colin burst into laughter, albeit a little too loudly. “I guess so. You were never that close with your sisters, right? I mean, since I’ve known you over the last ten years, I think you’ve brought them up maybe once or twice?”
“That’s a bit complicated, too,” Lola admitted. “We were close growing up until we all abandoned the Vineyard and tried to forget everything that had happened to us. Now, we’re trying to repair our relationships.”
“And how is that going?” Colin asked doubtfully.
“They’re the best people I know on the planet,” Lola said. She flared her nostrils, as though Colin’s asking it had in some way insinuated that they couldn’t have a second chance. “I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”
There was a strange pause. The server came to dot two margaritas in front of them, frothy, with lines of salt around the edges. Colin always complained that Quando Quando put too much salt on the edges, while Lola had always loved the extra zap of flavor.
Colin lifted his margarita and said, “To new beginnings, then?”
“Absolutely. Thanks for saying that,” Lola said, clinking her glass with his.
It seemed like Colin knew he had stepped in it and wanted to crank things back and re-generate the conversation. Since he was a journalist, he was able to do that almost seamlessly. The only trouble was that Lola was a journalist, too, and could see all the way through it.
By the time their food arrived, they had found a decent banter with one another.
“By the way, I really did enjoy your Round-the-Island article,” Colin said, his mouth filled with cheesy quesadilla. Lola had always teased him for ordering that dish since she thought it was the equivalent of a child’s order. Still, he stood by it.
“Thanks! It was really fun to write,” Lola returned as she searched through her fajitas for a bit of sautéed green pepper.
“That guy seems like quite a character. Tommy...”
“Gasbarro,” Lola finished.
“Right. We got a lot of emails about that article, actually,” Colin continued. “A lot of our female readership was especially fascinated with him. One reader called him a hunk of a man. Her words, not mine.” He leaned back in his chair as he dabbed his mouth with his napkin.
“Ha. I guess he is. He sails by himself almost constantly,” Lola returned.
“But he crashed his boat, right?”
“It was an accident,” Lola answered. When she blinked, she could still visualize Tommy in that hospital bed, the bandage wrapped around his skull. As she’d held his hand, she had thought endlessly about teenage Tommy meeting her mother for the first time all those years ago.
God. The idea of that nearly destroyed her. Your mother was a remarkable woman. She made Stan laugh harder than I’ve ever seen him laugh before. Actually, I’ve never really seen him laugh since. I think the accident literally destroyed him. He would never tell me that, though. He’s a hollowed-out person.
“Lola? You still here?” Colin asked.
“Huh? Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”
“I just asked how Audrey is doing. She’s at Penn State, right? She had that internship in Chicago?”
Lola grimaced and set down her fork. “Well, things went a little off the rails for Audrey.”
“What happened?” Colin furrowed his brow. After all, he had known Audrey for many years and genuinely cared for her well-being.
“She got pregnant, actually,” Lola said. “And she’s going to have it, in case you were wondering that also.”
Colin’s lips formed a round O. “My gosh. That must have been a shock to the system.”
“Sure. But it’s not like I can blame her,” Lola said with a sigh. “I had her when I was nineteen. I would never ever change anything. Not a moment of it.”
“Time just kind of keeps going and hitting us with all these truth bombs, huh?” Colin said chuckling.
“Yes. I suppose so,” Lola affirmed. She glanced at her empty margarita, paused, and said, “Do you want one more?”
Colin’s grin was enormous, showing the slight gap between his two front teeth. A long time ago, Lola had thought that gap was terribly cute. Now, it was just a part of who he was—a man she had once liked, a man she now could only love as a friend.
At least, that’s what she assumed?
There was so much to second guess in this life.
“Excuse me. Could we have two more margaritas?” Colin asked the server.
“Of course, sir,” the server returned, collecting their emptied plates.
“Wonderful.” As the server left, Colin leaned forward conspiratorially. “It’s been such a weird year for you. Have you considered writing a book about it? I bet it would fly off the shelves.”
Lola laughed good-naturedly. “You know, Colin, after I’ve had another margarita, I just might agree with you on that.”